A tourism plan for the city of Venice. The aim is to solve the negative consequences of such high rates of tourism associated with this city.

1. Team Exercise 1 Tourism planning forvenice Davide Antonelli, Mirko Chianesi, Andrea Scacchioli, Stefania Sossi, Simone Marco Vaglica

2. Venice is the capital of the regionVeneto which is located in theNorth of Italy. Venice has a landsurface of 189,4 km² which isdivided into 2 parts: islands andthe mainland. The largest part ofthe community is situated on themain land, which consists of theindustry cities Mestre andMarghera. This part has 176.000 inhabitants. Venice experiences an invasion of about 18 million visitors a year and most of these converge in the historiccentre. Recently tourism has resulted in many problems such as: environmental degradation,heritage management problems, conservation issues and major impacts on, and implications for, the host community. Current situation in Venice

3. Examplesofproblemsderivedfromtourism Since the last 10 years, Venice has lost about half of its population. People is not able to buy a house (too expensive). There are few job opportunities apart from tourism. For many hoteliers costs are much more bigger than revenues. Young people have to leave the city without their will (they would like to come back). People moves to live in Mestre and Maghera, because the cost of life is 1/3 than in Venice. Old Venice no longer exists. Because tourism makes it quite impossible to live in the city, Venetian community is going to face its extinction. On the other hand there will be a continuous growth of tourism arrivals. These situations explain well the reason why the future of Venice is insecure. Its future as a city but also its future as a tourism destination.

4. In orderto challenge a background analysisitcouldbeusefultocontact a desk researchtogetherwith a fieldone. Desk research will be mainly conducted in this way: data about Venice and destinations in transition will be acquired in the form of brochures, magazines, newspapers, books, readers, articles and journals. External experts about cities in transition will be asked to analyze all these kinds of information, giving their opinion about how they see the future of Venice. Concerning the field research, internal experts will be involved . They will belong to the Venetian community. It will be given them a voice to share their opinions, feeling and suggestions for the future. Because it might be crucial to have a host community in order to remain a vibrant city andtourism destination, analysing the host community attitude towards tourism is very important, especially in the case of Venice because the community is in decline. Background analysisoftourism in Venice

5. In way tofurtherdevelop a tourismstrategyforVenice, the background analysisiswillingtoanswer the followingquestions: What is Venice’s approach towards the development of tourism? How did tourism develop and what is the host community attitude towards this development? What is thought about the type and numbers of tourists visiting Venice? What are the impacts of tourism in Venice? What is the importance of having a host community in the centre? Background analysis’ aim

6. The first results coming from the background analysis are significant in order to make politicians, local people and people working in the tourism sector aware of the need of maintaining a host community in Venice. This is a crucial point, the only possible in way to keep the city vibrant and energetic and at the same time to attract tourists without having a population decline of the city. Developing a new tourism strategy and plan for Venice it will be very important to make recurrent surveys both for the customers and for the locals satisfaction, allowing us to constantly monitor the situation; this would be a very important key-point because thanks to those surveys it could be necessary to make some changes in order to improve the tourism strategy. Where do background analysisleadus?

7. A newtourismstrategyforVenice Too many tourists come every year into the inhabitants’ areas; this often leads to conflicts against local people. Venice is also too dependent from the tourism industry, while it would be better to have a mix of many industry sectors. The aim of the strategy is to halve the number of visitors that come every year, in order to give the historic centre its cities function back. This means that several attempts are going to be made in way to make the city more livable again, both for the citizens and the industries.

8. Different usage of the Venice Card, in order to manage the flow of tourists effectively. To change the day-tripper into an aware, curious, green tourist. Improvement of the already existent tourism infrastructure, guiding tourists towards the attractions. To control tourists misbehavior (walking in bath clothing, throwing garbage on the ground, etc.), preventing irritations of the inhabitants. To stimulate other industries giving them some tax benefits. Differentiation in tourism areas and zones for the inhabitants. With the reduction of the tourism industry also the costs of living can be dropped (house prices, services); in this way the inhabitants are able to come back to their home and together with them other industries. Strategy’s steps

9. It is important to focus on the tourism strategy in terms of sustainability. This aspect contains three key elements: Socio-cultural; (it will be good to have a community back in the historic centre) Environmental; (it will be better to reduce the number of tourists) Economic; (it will be better to differentiate the economy, because Venice’s potential is not fully used) Strategy’s sustainability

10. Strategy’s feasibility It is possible to reduce the number of visitors to prevent the city’s health. Efforts must be made to attract new segment of tourists instead of the non-profitable day-tripper. This is possible creating new products, packages and promotions that aim at this. It is feasible to attract inhabitants to the historic centre organizing activities and events specially for them. It is also feasible to stimulate and help other industries giving them protection with the label of origin that indicates if something is a real Venetian product. It is needed to lower the prices in way to attract inhabitants and industries. This can automatically happen when there will be less tourists. In this way it is fesible to have a balance between inhabitants and tourists.

11. Strategy’s timetable and evaluation The tourism strategy here showed is going to last at least five years. Within this period of time it will be constantly monitored through several activities: Each goal and objective will be measured in way to check how it is performing. It will be useful to make periodical surveys, both for the local and the tourism business operators. If something is not working, reasons for non-performance will be analyzed in order to change or improve the strategy. thanks to all the information gathered and to all the activities that will be performed, it is also useful to set a list of suggestions for future tourism planning processes.

12. The inhabitants are the most important good for a city. Usually when tourism grows it may happen that no inhabitants will be left anymore, as in the case of Venice. The major problem is that the city is confronted to standardization. Because of this situation culture will be lost, and all this might lead to a banal product that is no more interesting to visit. A positive aspect is that is that despite tourism generates problems of different nature to the inhabitants, they do not want to let it become extinct. They believe it belongs to the city. So, for this reason, there is the need to recreate a normal city in which tourism exists. However, not as a part of Venice; tourism must exist next to it. Conlcusions